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Are you eligible to study in the
US?
In one sentence, if you are intending to study in the US, you are eligible
irrespective of your back ground. The beauty of American education system
is its flexibility. So, it lets you study whatever you are interested in. Only thing is that you have to show your interest.
Let me take you through some common questions
Should you take the GRE?
If you are intending to study anything other than an M.B.A or residency
(something that medical practitioners need to do to become eligible to practice)
there is a 100% chance that most of the accredited universities require you to
take the GRE exam.
What does that mean?
Whatever your background may be (social sciences, engineering, physical
sciences, arts), you must take the GRE if you wish to do your Masters or Ph.D.
in any field in the US universities.
All accredited universities (if you do not know what this means, it is enough if
you know that accredited universities are the good universities and you should
aim at studying in those only) require you to have the valid GRE scores
reported.
Some universities want them for even considering your admission where as most
universities want your GRE scores for considering you for the financial
assistantship.
Should you take the
TOEFL?
Now, all of us whose mother tongue is not English must take the TOEFL exam
to be considered for an admission in the US universities.
Should you have 16 years of education in India before joining in a post
graduate program (or what they call graduate studies in the US) in the US?
Firstly, you need 16 years only to join and not to apply. So, you can
apply in your final year of education.
Most universities say explicitly that they need 16 years of education (10 +
2 + 4) before they can consider you for graduate studies. While this does
not pose much of a problem for Indian engineering students, post-graduates and
M.C.A students, it puts a requirement of one more year of education for all the
Indian graduates (B.A., B.Com, B.Sc etc.).
Now, I have a good news for you if you are an Indian graduate with 15 years of
education. In my own experience, more than 15 students went for a
straight Ph.D after 15 years of education here.
Now, what does that mean. The same: American education's main
strength is its flexibility. If you can convince the admission panel that
you have what it takes to do a Ph.D, they don't disqualify you because you did
not go to school for 16 years before that!
I have dealt in detail about how to convince the panel of your caliber in my "Application strategies" part of the Placementor.com-GRE
package.
Can I apply for a direct Ph.D without a Masters?
Yes!! You do not need a Masters degree to do Ph.D in US. I went
for a direct Ph.D after B.E. Sudha went for a direct Ph.D after her B.Sc. In fact it is advisable to apply for a Ph.D rather than Masters if you are very
serious about financial assistantship.
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